Saturday, April 03, 2010

JBF Award Winner John T. Edge will present the magazine The Oxford American’s 2010 Southern Food Issue, (guest-edited by him) a detailed look at the delicious foods of the American South. Based out of Conway, Arkansas, the erudite quarterly documents the vitality of Southern culture and celebrates the very best in Southern food writing. With the immensely-qualified Edge as guide, the 2010 Southern Food Issue promises to be an informative, up-close tour of a cuisine we love.

Some of what you will find in the 127 pages:

Atlanta figures prominently in at least three stories: “This Is Not What You Dream” by Mamie Morgan, a career server who weaves thoughts on the restaurant profession around a meal at Woodfire Grill and her enthrallment with Kevin Gillespie.

John Kessler writes a beautifully reported piece about Darryl Evans, chef at the defunct Spice, and why Atlanta has so few prominent black chefs. And Todd Kliman, food editor and restaurant critic for the Washingtonian, writes a piece about Peter Chang, the former chef at Tasty China in Marietta.

Two New Orleans writers also have pieces in the issue—Lolis Eric Elie on the missing African American credit to Creole cooking, and Brett Anderson on Uchi in Austin, Texas, owned by a white man, Tyson Cole, who has genuinely absorbed the Japanese gastronomic aesthetic.